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WHCHC [White House Conference on Hate Crimes] - HC [Hate Crimes] Victims
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- Része ennek Records of the Office of the Public Liaison (Clinton Administration), Elizabeth (Julian) Potter's files
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OCR Page 1 of 9of speech, freedom of religion, freedom to govern our own lifestyle.
Wasn't there a time when we all believed as long as our behavior wasn't
causing harm to another it was nobody's business what we did in the privacy
of our own homes? Who cares, as long as the premiums are paid, and are not
paid with their money? Someone please explain this so I will understand who
did something wrong and why aren't they entitled to health insurance. Why
shouldn't I watch Disney movies, and most of all, why should you Southern
Baptists be the ones to decide?
M.D. Gerdes, Rogers
Dallas Morning News, August 5, 1997
Box 655237, Dallas, TX, 75265
(Fax 214-263-0456, print run 393,511)
(E-Mail: [email protected])
FW attacks on 2 men outside gay clubs called hate crimes
By Michael D. Goldhaber / The Dallas Morning News
FORT WORTH - Two men leaving gay nightclubs early Sunday were robbed and
beaten, and one of them stabbed, in separate incidents that police have
classified as hate crimes.
Each man was approached by a pair of men in a white car shortly after 2
a.m. The first victim, who got into the car after leaving the Magnolia
Station club in South Fort Worth, was beaten, robbed at knifepoint and left
on the street.
Minutes later, Howard A. Pottrof was approached by two men as he left the
nearby 651 club, police said. In addition to being robbed and beaten, Mr.
Pottrof was ordered to strip and stabbed in the back.
Police said they believe the same men carried out both attacks, but they
had no suspects by Sunday night.
Mr. Pottrof, a 34-year-old graphic design student who lives in the Fort
Worth suburb of Sansom Park, said he had gone bar-hopping with friends but
had become separated from them and was on his way to a pay phone when two men
in a white car engaged him in conversation.
He said the men looked familiar and appeared clean-cut, so he accepted
their offer to drive him home and got into the back seat. A few blocks away,
the stranger in the front passenger seat jumped into the back and began to
beat Mr. Pottrof about the head and face.
They also hurled epithets at him, he said: "It was faggot this and faggot
that and on and on."
The two assailants demanded money and threatened murder. "We are going to
kill you," Mr. Pottrof said he was told. "We have done it before."
The assailants ordered Mr. Pottrof to surrender his wallet, which was
nearly empty, and to take off all his clothes. Mr. Pottrof said he persuaded
the attackers to let him keep his underwear.
When Mr. Pottrof jumped from the car, the man in the back seat stabbed him
in the center of the lower back, he said.
Disoriented, the victim ran about four blocks barefoot, in his underwear,
to a nearby supermarket. A security guard called for help.
Doctors at Harris Methodist Fort Worth hospital treated and released Mr.
Pottrof. He said he was told he narrowly escaped paralysis.
"I should be able to go out to a gay bar without getting preyed on," he
said.
Between 1994 and 1996, there were four fatal stabbings linked to anti-gay
bias in Fort Worth and Irving.